SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Although his craft as a versatile basketball player gets overlooked at times, one thing about Vlade Divac's game never seems to go unnoticed - his acting ability.

The Kings' veteran center has been criticized for years by Shaquille O'Neal, who has a strong dislike for Divac's penchant of falling to the floor against the Lakers.

Divac added another admirer of his acting skills last week. He frustrated Memphis' Lorenzen Wright throughout the game, finishing with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Wright eventually exited the game after fouling out in 27 minutes.

"It's a lot of tricks and fake flops, and the referees fall for that," Wright said. "I hate actors. Just play the game. I don't know how to act. I was yelling to the ref: 'He's faking. He's faking.' That's the only reason I got to stay in the game as long as I did."

Divac has been pulling the same tricks on opponents throughout his 15 NBA seasons.

MightyToine

01-28-2004, 04:45 PM

Wish someone would REALLY CAUSE Divac to "flop" like that....A PUnch to the face by Fortson? Maybe an ELBOW by Bradley?? i/expressions/devil.gif

EricaLubarsky

01-28-2004, 08:10 PM

flopping is the response to bullying. Neither the Mavs nor the Kings play physically and when you aren't knocking someone over you have to flop to get the call the other way.

Vlade might be the most obvious and does it the often but everyone flops and Finesse teams are more likely to do it.

The Divac/flop idea is older than the Mavs/No Defense idea.

bernardos70

01-30-2004, 04:37 PM

Flopping is not an easy easy art to master. Divac has clearly been reading extensively on the subject (http://www.nba.com/media/mavericks/ep04.html) to become even better at it.